


Tal Vashoth

by Katalyna_Rose



Series: Vhenan and Associated Stories (Lyna Lavellan) [19]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: M/M, Tal-Vashoth Iron Bull
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-04
Updated: 2017-01-04
Packaged: 2018-09-14 15:27:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9189368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katalyna_Rose/pseuds/Katalyna_Rose
Summary: Iron Bull didn't expect to leave the Qun, but he finds it doesn't have to be so bad after talking to one of the Inquisition's Tal Vashoth mercenaries.





	

“Tal va-fucking-shoth,” Iron Bull grunted yet again as he drained yet another mug. He’d lost track of how many he’d had several hours ago. He would probably feel like absolute shit in the morning.

“It’s really not that bad,” a voice said at his elbow, daring to sit beside him. He canted his head to look at the intruder, and was somewhat shocked to see a female of his own race nursing a drink of her own as she settled onto the stool as if she belonged there.

“What’s not that bad?” he asked, shocked enough to ask instead of dismissing her from his attention. She grinned, and her crooked teeth were oddly charming.

“Being Tal Vashoth,” she said. “I was born one, so I suppose I don’t have much to compare it to, but both my parents lived under the Qun for a long time before they left.”

“I haven’t seen you around here,” Bull said. He’d have noticed a female Qunari wandering around Skyhold. “You a new recruit?”

“Been around for a few weeks with my mercenary band,” she said. “I’m Adaar. You’re The Iron Bull, right?”

“Yeah,” he admitted, trying to read her. Her armor was an odd mix of high-quality leather pieces that still smelled of oil and tattered old cotton cloth. She had a mage’s staff strapped to her back and a sword at her hip, and he spied a dagger up her sleeve. He judged her age at somewhere between twenty and thirty, but couldn’t pin it down any better than that. She was weird.

“Don’t worry about it too much, The Iron Bull,” she said, taking a sip out of her mug and crossing her legs like an Orlesian lady. “My parents left the Qun to be together. The Qun demanded that they part because she was a Tamassran and he was supposed to breed with someone else. But they were in love, and they couldn’t accept that the Qun would separate them. And then my mother discovered she was pregnant with me, and she _knew_ he was the father. And the Qun would have demanded that I be killed the moment I was born. So they left. And they raised me together, away from the Qun. And I’ve had a good life. So it’s really not so bad.”

“You got lucky,” Bull said, impressed by her story and the matter-of-fact way she told it. She shrugged.

“Life outside the Qun doesn’t have to suck,” she said. Then she gave him a lopsided grin. “After all, I hear you’ve been spending a great deal of time with someone the Qun would definitely not approve of.” She raised an eyebrow suggestively, and Bull couldn’t stop the blush that formed along his cheekbones.

“Yeah, well…” He drained another mug, his vision swimming. “Dorian is a good guy,” he muttered. “Just because he’s Tevinter and a mage doesn’t mean that he isn’t a good person.”

“Exactly,” Adaar said, grinning like he’d just said something truly profound. After draining yet another mug, Bull realized that he had, that his simple statement proved even more than his choice at the Storm Coast that he was meant to be there, away from the Qun and outside of it.

Suddenly, he didn’t feel quite so bad about it all, especially as he heard Krem’s laughter behind him and the little titter Maryden gave when someone she like flirted with her. Everything would be just fine.


End file.
